I know I have started a lot of AARS but only my game against 76mm has produced a long standing one. That game is going rather slow currently at the pace of a turn a week or so. It was started a long time ago before any of the patches and although I will continue to play it I think that game is going to be a tad boring for awhile because of the strategic situation that has developed. My AAR against Manstein had a future but I noobishly deleted our game by mistake while deleting the plethora of old games on my list like a noob.

I recently had another Axis player quit against me as Soviet on turn 10 so I had a game slot open up. I wont be starting any Soviet side games or AARs for awhile as its just too much of time sink to get a good one started just to have the other guy leave for whatever reason.

When you toss a game up on the server you never know who you will get. When I opened up the email this morning I saw my new opponent was Timmyab a fellow forum hound and seems knowledgeable in the way the game works. I am sure this game will be a test of whatever skills I have managed to accrue up to this point.

I also plan to be a bit more detailed so some of the newer players may pick up on a few tips along the way. People playing as Axis should know if you only kill 1200 Soviet planes on turn one you may have a few issues down the road

First I set my air doctrine. Minimum use is 5% or 0%. Airfield strikes I set at 75% with 50% fighter cover. I then turn off recon fighter cover.

I always start with Rumania and their airforce only and work my way north. I recon the bases in the Crimea and hit them first. I then recon the bases around Odessa and alternate between Kishinev and the base with recon planes as those are always a number one priority. Early Soviet recon is horrible and the more recon planes you can kill the longer it stays that way.

You do not want to use the German Heinkels in Rumania at first so click on Rumanian Airbases before you launch attacks. You get better results letting the computer select the squadrons for some reason so I do that.

This particular round was ok with around 500 airframes killed by the Rumanians acting solo.

Recon the bases around Kiev then work your way across the Ukraine. Typically there are still a lot of Soviet high quality planes at Kishinev so I use the first Heinkel raid there. Usually this raid results in 200+ killed airframes but it is somewhat dependent on how your Rumanians did earlier.

At 5%/75% you can usually get a good 5 or so raids with around 10 less planes each raid. I hit the bomber base near Kiev and then just pick bases until the bombers run out. The recon base near Kiev typically can be wiped out with around 30 Heinkels.

Here are the results from the Heinkels added into the Rumanian results. As you can see this one bomber wing did very well killing 1000 airframes.

Pretty straight forward just bomb the biggest bases rinse and repeat. There is a bomber base near the marsh you want to hit early like the 3rd or 4th raid so you do not run out of long ranged planes. Also hit the base near the Hungarian border early. Not the same high percentage of success as the Rumanian solo wing but what happens is you run out of targets...

AGN and AGC Luftwaffe results - Recon around the map and hit the wingtip to wingtip bases. Hot targets you must not forget to hit early while you have long range is a bomber base near Vitebsk, recon base near Minsk and a recon base near Riga.

You will get a few more kills from airbase overruns but not as many as you will later in the game because they are usually all dead already. You also wont get a lot of air to air kills because well they are all dead and not flying intercept or grounds support.

So that was the air war turn one. Some players have reported 6000+ airframes killed turn one but I am not clear how to get those kind of results. My average is around 5200-5300.

I also must add because Joel announced that the Riga gambit will be fixed with an adjustment to turn one captured port usage in an upcoming patch. Because of that announcement I wont be using the Riga Gambit any longer so I did not bomb the Island port as in the past. If you want to do that I suggest you make that your first air mission so you do not use up your long range planes before you want to try it.

4th Panzer army sector - 269th and 290th IDs blow the Soviets off the line to open a gap for 18th army and Panzer forces. In the past I reinforced these divisions with SUs but now I use the APs for beefing up the Panzer divsions to keep the Panzers CVs up. I try and stack the Panzers with pioneers and infantry/mg battalions. The motorized get stuggs, jags and flak. Later in the war in shuffle in a flak battalion with every mech unit as Soviet interdiction and counter attacks pick up.

18th Army sector - 18th army pushes out as far as they can. Hasty attacks rule the day to try and herd the Soviets into a pocket with retreats. 58th ID heads up the coast clearing the way for 291 ID to take Liepaja. Then 36th motorized will take Ventspils. Great care is taken to not bump into any routed Soviets.

AGC - Next up was 9th army that screened the Soviet bulge to the north with regiments and cleared out Soviets in the marshes near Lyck. Also a small penetration was made into the Soviet lines by 42nd corps to get a jump on pocket reduction. Security divisions saw combat trying to get their morale up to 60ish for the future.

AGC 4th army - Used 4th army to attack Brest Litovsk and blow a hole open for 2nd Panzer. Most of 4th army shifted to the south and then east to shorten the distance east on turn 2. A small Brest area pocket is planned so movement was made with this in mind. One Panzer division is used to overrun a Soviet Air base to grab fuel.

2nd Panzer army phase one - One reinforced Panzer corps races east to the vicinity of Baronivichi to form the southern wall of the central pocket and link up with the future moves of 3rd Panzer. Neman river is crossed at Stolbsky. AGC infantry move forward with no opposition in a good position to lurch forward turn 2.

AGC 3rd Panzer army moves - Link up with 4th Panzer to the north and 2nd Panzer to the south. 3rd Panzer infantry pushes forward. One Panzer division transferred to 4th Panzer that was out of HQ range across the Daugava. Panzers form a good corridor around the pocket and advance close to Minsk. Spearheads reach as far east as Krivici and Glubokoe.

AGC 2nd Panzer phase 2 - Pocket is sealed by Brest with infantry and a Panzer division. Several Soviet tank divsions in the pocket which should hold. Units from 2nd panzer also go south to help seal Kovel pocket.

AGS 17th army - Bare knuckles brawling as 17th army plows into the Soviet lines to push them back from Axis rail lines and out of their forts. Casualties are a bit heavy and several Axis divisions CV drop to 5. The rough hex is flanked and then pushed into the pocket.

AGS 6th army - Kovel pocket is formed with help from 2nd panzer army. 2 Divisions from 9th army are railed in for support. 6th army units push towards Rovno and set up to help shore up the Lvow pocket from the east. Major Soviet armor forces are pushed west into the future pocket just to the south of the screenshot.

heavy fighting as 1st Panzer with 2nd Panzer army help sets up the corridor. I am not anticipating a break in the ring but even if one occurs the bulk of the Lvow pocket will be destined for the scrap heap.

Not as high as some games that attack everything in the way but the payoff is turn 2 with the pockets. I have played several Axis players that try and blow everything off the line. As the Soviet I find this to be a grave mistake as all those routed units come in handy turn 2 and 3 before substantial Soviet reinforcements arrive. Dive them into swamps and behind rivers and any time saved on turn one is lost later.

My final moves were hauling fuel to the spearheads and doing a ton of recon deep across the front. I am pretty sure spotting units helps with interdiction so I wanted to spot as much as possible. I then cranked up interdiction to 175% to hopefully foil his movements a bit.

I am not sure about cranking the interdiction up. I think it will mean fewer but heavier attacks. Smart Ivan will move around a bunch of HQ's and Airfields to suck up much of your available air on rubbish targets. I think 75% to 100% might be better. More overall attacks with less effect might be better. You have to ask what would be better? Hitting 1 division hard or 3 moderately.